<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Ronnie's Yule Ball by thek9kid</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23582152">Ronnie's Yule Ball</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/thek9kid/pseuds/thek9kid'>thek9kid</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Crushes, Family, Female Charlie Weasley, Female Ron Weasley, Friendship, Magic, Male Hermione Granger, Oblivious Harry Potter, Oblivious Ron Weasley, Yule Ball (Harry Potter), dress surgery</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 22:22:11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,937</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23582152</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/thek9kid/pseuds/thek9kid</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Veronica "Ronnie" Weasley's entire closet was made up of Hand-me-downs, from her sister Charlie, her mum and dad, her brothers. Nevermind that she was almost the tallest of her siblings, and nothing fit right. It's fine, she's fine, everything's fine. It's just, for once, just for the only Yule Ball Hogwarts will ever throw, couldn't her mother have sent her a dress that actually fit?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Harry Potter &amp; Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger &amp; Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger/Viktor Krum, Lavender Brown &amp; Ron Weasley, Ron Weasley &amp; Fay Dunbar, Ron Weasley &amp; Parvati Patil, Ron Weasley &amp; Weasley Family, Viktor Krum &amp; Ron Weasley</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>138</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Ronnie's Yule Ball</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A/N: Hi! So I Iove this series, I also love Ron and any female version of him. As I do not have the time, energy, or will to rewrite the series with this gender change I picked a moment in the books, The Yule Ball, that I thought would showcase key differences and be very fun. There are a few other gender changes as well as a couple of relationship changes although Ron’s canonical relationships and crushes remain the same. I hope you enjoy this!</p><p>Disclaimer: Pfff, Naw... </p><p> </p><p>Veronica “Ronnie” Weasley was sitting in her study hall with her two best friends, Hermes Granger, and Harry Potter. Although Hermes was the only one who was actually studying.</p><p>“Dude the Ball is in two weeks, you need a date,” Ronnie whispered, doodling on her parchment instead of getting started on her potions essay.</p><p>“So do you,” Harry muttered.</p><p>“Yeah, but I’m not a champion, I’m not required to go,” Ronnie muttered blushing a bit. She wasn’t really sure if she wanted to go, not with the dress mum had sent her. It wasn’t so bad really, it was a lovely shade of light purple, she wasn’t going to say lavender, because it was strange when her dormmate was named Lavender. It had a nice corset that would tighten up on her slim torso and show off her barely-there breasts. As it was two decades old, it had these poufy lacy sleeves that were too short and the dress’s skirt was at about knee height when it was supposed to reach the floor. </p><p>“Do you want to go?” Harry asked her, a strange note in his voice like he was trying to decide on a course of action. </p><p>“Maybe,” she shrugged, the dress may be old fashioned and too short in areas, but it did have a lovely story. It was the dress her mum wore to her first Yule Ball in her sixth year, where she danced and fell in love with Ronnie’s clumsy father who couldn’t stop stepping on her toes.</p><p>“Well-” Harry started but was cut off by Hermes aggressively shushing them.</p><p>“Will you two be quiet? I am trying to study, even if grades mean absolutely nothing to you two,” he growled giving them both a glare, before looking back down at his own essay. Was it just her imagination or did Hermes face look abnormally red? </p><p>Harry nudged her arm, and she looked back at him, he was slowly sliding a note in her direction, she looked down and it read, “We’ll talk later, but do you know any girls who don’t have dates yet?”</p><p>For some reason, her heart sank. For a moment she thought he was going to ask her to the Yule Ball. That would be ridiculous, though, they were just friends. Beside Harry picked his nose, and then ate the boogers. It was when they were eleven, but still.</p><p>She shook her head, nope. Lavender was going with Seamus, Pavarti with Dean, Fay was going with Ernie Macmillian. Ginny was going with Neville, and all of her roommates had dates with the older boys or decided not to go. Susan was going with Justin, Hannah was going with Anthony, the Ravenclaw girls in her year all had dates and the Slytherin girls had all bragged about their dates weeks ago. Harry’s shoulders slumped.   </p><p>Hermes glanced up at them, then down at the note, squinted and read it upside down, then his face became a shade of red her family would be proud of. She thought he was going to explode, but all he did was stand up to his full six-foot height so abruptly he pushed the bench back, startling the other Dean, Neville, and Katie who were sitting on the same bench. He grabbed his books and stormed out of the Great Hall.</p><p>“What’s up with him?” Harry asked, Ronnie just shrugged, but she couldn’t help looking at the door every few minutes.</p><p>~</p><p>A couple of days later before breakfast, Ronnie, after making sure her roommates had left the room and the bathroom, pulled the box containing her dress from under the bed and gently placed it on the covers. She ran her fingers over the purple and white gemstones patterning the corset.</p><p>It really wasn’t that bad, she loved the color, and she was ecstatic that Mum hadn’t sent her a maroon dress. Ronnie shuddered at the thought. She pulled her sleep shirt off and pulled the dress on over her sleep shorts. She went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. </p><p>It was hard to tell, she couldn’t lace up the corset without help. The sleeves bothered her, it was too tight around the forearm, and the fabric made her arms itch, not to mention how ancient the style made her feel. But the corset was really pretty, the gems gleamed in the light, they were most likely fake, but it was still beautiful. The skirt was really soft and had multiple layers, it fanned out when she twirled. If only it were a foot and a half long.</p><p>The dancing lessons yesterday had made her actually decide she wanted to go to the dance. They were amazing, not only because Fred had to dance with Prof. McGonagal, but her partner Hermes was already a great dancer and helped her get the steps right. She had discovered a love for dancing that she never felt before. She didn’t really care that she didn’t have a date she just wanted to go and have fun with her friends. She would just have to steal her them occasionally from their dates and have some dances.</p><p>She sighed resolving to make a trip to the library and research clothing alteration magic. Just as she was about to take the dress off and put her school uniform on, Lavender came barging into the bathroom, muttering about her period coming a week too early. The blonde froze and Ronnie saw her face heating up in the mirror, Great now Lavender had ammunition for a good week or so.</p><p>“Ronnie…” she started her mouth opening and closing.</p><p>“Go ahead and laugh,” Ronnie muttered, shouldering past Lavender and back to her wardrobe.</p><p>“Oh come on, I am not that mean,” Lavender said following her out. Ronnie snorted, the girl used to tease her relentlessly for her hand-me-down clothes in the first year. She started pulling the dress off but Lavender’s voice caught her off guard and made her freeze.</p><p> </p><p>“It’s really pretty Ronnie,” she said softly, “Minus the sleeves of course, but we can fix that.”</p><p>Ronnie was speechless for a moment, sure things had changed since the first year, but Lavender had never called her or anything she owned, pretty before. </p><p>“It was my mum’s,” Ronnie said. “She danced with my dad for the first time in this dress at her Yule ball.”</p><p>“Well, why don’t you owl her and ask if it’s ok if we make a few alterations, so it will fit you better?” Ronnie hummed non-committally.</p><p>“Do you want to see it all laced up?” Lavender asked, tugging at the bindings expertly as Ronnie nodded her ascent. </p><p>“Why are you helping me?” Ronnie whispered.</p><p>“I just can’t stand to see this perfectly beautiful dress attacked by these parasites you call sleeves.” Ronnie giggled, “But seriously you were really nice to me about my bunny last year. Even when your friend Hermes was being a right prat about it.”</p><p>“He has like zero tact sometimes,” Ronnie said, Hermes could be such a genius one moment and then put both feet in his mouth the next, especially if he was technically right about something. </p><p>She liked how the corset fit, the material on the inside was soft and it was tight, but not so tight she couldn’t breathe. Lavender led her over to the mirror. Her mouth fell open. Ronnie wasn’t exactly the curviest girl in the world and certainly didn’t have an hourglass figure, but what few curves she did have were emphasized by the corset, and somehow her tiny boobs looked bigger in this thing, showing off a modest amount of cleavage along with a thousand or so freckles splattered on her chest.</p><p>“Do you have a date?” she asked, “Cause he’ll faint when he sees you when I’m through with this thing.”</p><p>Ronnie smiled. “No, but I want to go anyway.”</p><p>“Good on you,” Lavender nodded, “I wish I had the courage to go to the ball without a date, Seamus is ok, but the boy makes farting noises with his armpit,” she said wrinkling her nose in disgust. “Thank God it’s a Hogsmeade weekend, so Pavati, Fay and I will go to Mrs. Taylor’s fabric shop and we will get some fabric for the skirt, I hope we can match the color, and we’ll hack the sleeves off. Do you want us to put different ones on, or we could do straps, or it could be sleeveless or strapless?”</p><p>“Well, not strapless, I think that would be a bit too many freckles for the world to see,” Ronnie said, putting a hand over her chest and said showing freckles.</p><p>“Veronica Weasley you and your freckles are beautiful, I’d kill to have your freckles.”</p><p>“Wow. Ok, thank you?” Ronnie said, blushing again. Lavender was just full of surprises today.</p><p>Lavender cleared her throat. “Alright, how about like little cap sleeves, just a bit of purple lace around your shoulders?”</p><p>Ronnie nodded mutely, having no clue what she was talking about, but Lavender knew what she was doing. She always looked fabulous. </p><p>The Bell rung suddenly startling the two girls. “Ok, we should go to class,” Ronnie said and Lavender very quickly undid the corset and Ronnie scrambled to get ready while Lavender took care of her business in the bathroom. Lavender got out just as Ronnie threw her bookbag over her shoulder. “I can’t believe I skipped breakfast to try on my dress,” Ronnie muttered, furious with herself.</p><p>Lavender snorted, “Don’t worry, I doubt it will ever happen again, here.” She tossed a granola bar at her roommate, who caught it deftly, nodding her thanks as she ate it in two bites and stuffed the wrapper in her bag as they ran down the stairs, out of the common room, and down the stairs to Charms.</p><p>~</p><p>It was a week before the dance now, and Lavender, Fay, and Pavarti had been working on her dress nonstop, but the three girls wouldn’t let her see it, said it was a surprise. They had an idea that would take longer but would look fabulous. Ronnie tried to trust them but was a bit nervous, she really didn’t want to look like an idiot. What if Lavender was just acting nice so she could ruin her dress and make her look like a laughingstock, leaving her with absolutely no time to fix it?</p><p>She tried not to worry about it too much. She glanced over at Lavender and Pavarti, sitting a few spots away furiously whispering to each other. Fay sitting across from them reading a book but occasionally leaned into the conversation. Fay was the voice of reason between the three girls and hopefully would keep Lavender from humiliating her in front of the whole school. </p><p>Ronnie jumped a little as Harry’s voice startled her out of her fears, “It’s useless, I’ll have to dance alone and look like an idiot,” he said, his face planted in his empty plate during dinner.</p><p>Harry still didn’t have a date and was getting desperate now, asking every girl in sight even the ones from Beabatons and Durstrang, but everyone already had dates.</p><p>“I’m sure there’s a girl or two who don’t have dates yet,” Hermes said pointedly looking between Ronnie and Harry. Ronnie smiled at him but she wasn’t holding out hope, Harry was too damn oblivious, she was half convinced Harry thought of her as a boy. Not that she was complaining, she didn’t have a single solitary romantic thought about the Boy Who Lived. He was practically her brother. Adding to the fact that he was a horrific dancer her toes might thank her if he never realizes they could go to the ball together.</p><p>Although Harry may have been given the hint this time as he slowly faced Ronnie, a rarely seen look in his eyes that meant someone was home. He lifted his head slowly from his plate, she had to fight a smile at the bit of gravy stuck to his cheek and in his hair. Hermes had no such qualms and was currently shaking with laughter, she kicked him under the table.</p><p>“Ronnie, you’re a girl.” That was it, she couldn’t stop herself from giggling, but at least she wasn’t Hermes who was banging his head on the table. </p><p>“Thanks for noticing, we’ve only known each other for four years now,” she said through her laughter.</p><p>“I know, I mean, well, I just-” he took a calming breath, “Ronnie Weasley would you like to go to the Ball with me?”</p><p>“As Friends right?” she asked calming herself down, not wanting to deal with any weird romantic stuff from her best friend.</p><p>“Yep.”</p><p>“Ok,” she said, and then glanced down the table, Lavender and Pavarti were still engrossed with their conversation, Fay lost in her novel and none of them paying her any attention. Now would be the perfect time to sneak up and take a look at the dress. “I got to go, see you.” She stood up and gathered her things. “Oh and my dress is purple if you want to color coordinate or something,” she said shrugging.</p><p>“Oh, ok yeah, Purple…” Harry mused like he knew what she was talking about.</p><p>Ronnie looked over at Hermes and mouthed “help him,” he smiled and nodded. </p><p>~</p><p>As Ronnie left the great Hall, Hermes slapped Harry on the back of the head.</p><p>“Ow! What was that for?” Harry exclaimed, rubbing his head.</p><p>“You know what that was for. If that was any other girl they would have smacked you much harder than that,”</p><p>“That’s why I asked Ronnie, there’s no pressure, we can just have fun,” Harry said, getting another helping of mashed potatoes and gravy. Hermes pointedly did not tell him about the gravy in his hair.</p><p>“Is there a single chivalrous bone in your body, you could have put a little more effort into it.” </p><p>“Hey if you wanted to go to the ball with her you could have told me man, or better yet told her.”</p><p>Hermes could feel the heat rise in his face, “Ronnie’s my friend ok, and I already have a date. I just think Ronnie deserves better than to be your last resort and she certainly didn’t deserve a “Hey, you’re a girl,” like we’re eleven again.”</p><p>“I do not sound like that,” Harry grumbled, crossing his arms across his chest. </p><p>“Yes, you do.”</p><p>“No I- Now who’s eleven. So who is your date anyway? You never told us.” </p><p>“You’ll find out at the dance,” he said and then got up and left as well. Harry shrugged and happily kept eating his food until a third-year girl tapped him on the shoulder and whispered in his ear. He frowned and touched his hair.</p><p>“Ah! Gross, Hermes!” he shouted running off after him.</p><p>~</p><p>It was about two days before the Ball and all attempts to see the dress before the appointed time, four hours before the dance so they had time to get ready, were thwarted. Why they needed four hours was beyond her. As she had been kicked out of her dorm, yet again, she was reading by the fire, along with Hermes who was surprised and pleased to see her crack open a book, The Adventures of Magenta and Skeet the Dragon it was her favorite novel about a kick-ass Witch saving the world with her trusty sassy Dragon. </p><p>Ginny came through the portrait hole along with Neville giggling. Ronnie smiled, it was amazing to see her little sister so carefree after what happened in her first year and last year with the dementors wasn’t a picnic for her either. </p><p>The two said their goodbyes and Neville went upstairs to his dormitory and Ginny plopped down next to her.</p><p>“Having fun?”</p><p>“Yep, we were practicing for the dance, Neville’s a really good dancer.” She paused for a moment, “has Harry got a date yet?” she asked trying to look innocent and uninterested by examining her nails.</p><p>Ronnie braced for an explosion, “Yeah, me.” Ginny’s head whipped around so fast Ronnie was spitting out long strands of red hair out of her mouth.</p><p>“What?” Ginny asked, was it just her or did the temperature drop about ten degrees? Hermes shut his book with a snap and ran up the stairs. Ronnie couldn’t help the smile that drifted across her face.</p><p>“Oh calm down, we’re just going as friends Gin,” she said.</p><p>“Oh, ok then,” It was silent for a moment, “And your dress, I know it was mum’s from her first Ball with Dad, the Purple One with the horrible sleeves? Maybe I can help, I know some fabric modification spells,” she said digging in her bag and pulled out a book entitled, Dress Modification Charms for the Hideous Hand-Me-Downs That Just Won’t Do, by Hafalda Macintyre, “I checked it out for my dress.”</p><p>“It was Charlie’s right?” Ronnie asked.</p><p>“Yeah, and it fit just right but I hated the color, it was this weird puke green, anyway I used this spell,” she said rifling through to the right page, “to turn it a nice sky blue.” </p><p>“Great. Thanks for the offer, but Lavender, Pavarti, and Fay are performing Dress surgery. All I needed was the sleeves taken off and some added fabric to the bottom, but they wanted to do something extra with it and they won’t tell me what it is. Apparently, it’s a surprise.” </p><p>“You’ve been trying to steal a look since haven’t you,” she giggled. “You were always trying to find your birthday presents before the day when we were kids.</p><p>“Well ok, but it is my dress, ya know.”</p><p>“And you should trust your friends, they’ll do right by you.”</p><p>“Yeah, you’re right,” Ronnie said puzzling over the word ‘friends’. She had at first wanted to be friends with her roommates, but they didn’t even like quidditch that much, and Ronnie didn’t like gossiping or conversations about clothes or makeup or boys all that much either. It wasn’t that she wasn't interested, but all of her clothes were mostly hand me downs from Charlie and her mum plus some things from her brothers (their school uniform trousers were a godsend because she hated wearing Charlie’s old skirts, they were too short and made her feel uncomfortable), with a few scattered new things. But she rarely got to choose what was given or bought for her so what was the point in talking about it? </p><p>In their first year, Lavender had teased her about her clothes incessantly, and the other girls didn’t join in, but Pavarti laughed at her along with Lavender. Fay didn’t laugh but she didn’t say anything to stop it either. Although, Lavender had apologized grudgingly about it at the end of the year after Percy gave her multiple detentions and McGonagall sent a letter home to Lavender’s parents about her behavior. Second-year they really just ignored each other. Last year after the bunny incident with Hermes. When Scabbers was lost, Lavender started talking civilly to her and even told off an older boy for looking up Ronnie’s School skirts. </p><p>When Lavender stopped teasing her in the first year, Pavarti stopped too, and Fay started talking to her for real in their second year. She learned they had more in common, they both liked chess as well as the Magenta and Skeet series. </p><p>And now here they were, all four of them laughing and talking every day, they were helping her with her dress and maybe, just maybe she could call Lavender, Fay, and Pavarti friends now. </p><p>~</p><p>It was finally, finally time. Ronnie stood next to her bed, Pavarti and Fay on either side of her, covering her eyes.</p><p>“You’re going to love this, it’s perfect, our best work yet I think,” Pavarti gushed.</p><p>“I can’t wait, can I open my eyes now?” Ronnie said impatiently. </p><p>“Just, one more second,” she heard Lavender mutter in front of her, “and 3, 2, 1!” Pavarti and Fay lifted their hands, Ronnie snapped her eyes open, and her jaw dropped.</p><p>“Oh my God,” she whispered, her hands coming up to cover her mouth. </p><p>“Do you like it?” Lavender asked, her voice soft, and unsure.</p><p>“Like it? Girl, I love it!” The dress, hanging on Lavender’s fourposter bed, now had the sleeves replaced with these light fluttery whips of purple lace just a shade lighter than the corset, which remained largely the same, but it was the skirt that had undergone a miraculous transformation.</p><p>The light purple fabric had been replaced with a darker purple and then bejeweled with red sequins that sparkled in the shape of a lion.</p><p>“Lavender! Pavarti! Fay! You guys didn’t have to do all this,” she whispered in awe.</p><p>“It was Pavarti’s idea, the lion,” Lavender said.</p><p>“We wanted to,” Pavarti said, coming up next to her and putting a hand on her back. “Think of it as a very sincere apology for every time I laughed at you and didn’t stop Lavender from teasing you. </p><p>“And every time I just completely ignored the situation, and how much our words and the laughter hurt you,” Fay said, awkwardly rubbing the back of her neck.</p><p>“And every time I teased you. I really am sorry for all of that Ronnie, I was a jerk,” Lavender said, absently playing with the skirt of the dress she was holding.</p><p>“You really were,” Ronnie said startling a laugh from the other girls and pulled them into a hug. “For what it’s worth, I forgive you guys and thank you for all of this,” she said gesturing to the dress.</p><p>“There’s more,” Fay interjected, holding out a pair of dark purple sparkling heels, it was only an inch heel, so hopefully she wouldn’t tower too much over Harry. </p><p>“Oh, thank you. I totally forgot about shoes.”</p><p>“We thought so.”</p><p>“Alright, can I try it on now?” she asked. </p><p>“Not yet, we have to do your hair and makeup first,” Fay said.</p><p>Ronnie groaned fearing the inevitable and then proceeded to have a furious haggling war with Fay and the other two about how much makeup she really needed. In the end, she had made many concessions, and now had concealer, blush, eyeliner, mascara, and lipstick decorating her face. Although she had convinced Pavarti to skip the eyeshadow and to tone down the eyeliner and convinced Fay just to match her lip tone, so at least she wasn’t sporting the blue lipstick that Lavender was favoring. She had also convinced Lavender to just leave her hair down in its natural ringlets, but she had put a few potions in it that made it soft, smooth, and frizz-free.  </p><p>Once her three roommates had deemed her ready, and she had put her foot down on painting her toenails, which would be covered up with her shoes anyway, she slipped into her dress and Lavender laced up the corset.</p><p>“So what do you think?” Lavender asked again.</p><p>“I love it,” Ronnie said as she looked at her reflection in the full-length mirror. It felt so good to actually feel comfortable and pretty in her dress. The skirt just barely brushed the floor. And the sequined Lion, was it moving? She took an experimental spin, watching her reflection and noticed that the other girls were staring at her intently with barely covered giggles. </p><p>As she spun, the Lion roared and pranced around her skirt.</p><p>Ronnie couldn’t help the giggles that sprung out of her at the sight. </p><p>“Oh my Merlin,” she said, feeling pinpricks of tears behind her eyes. She turned to the other girls who also had tears in their eyes. “This is incredible, I don’t know how to thank you,” she choked out, no one had ever done anything like this for her before. She was used to faking a smile when she received hand-me-downs from her mom, Charlie, and her brothers, from pretending that 60s fashions were making a come back every time her mom felt guilty about giving her her old clothes.</p><p>And for once, for once, she had something that was hers, that fit her, that was beautiful, and would make her best friend faint.</p><p>“Could you zip me up?” Fay asked with a watery smile. Ronnie chuckled and nodded, proceeding to help her roommates also get ready for the ball. </p><p>The four girls descended the steps into the common room, turning heads as they entered. Seamus smiled at Lavender, but his eyes bugged out when he saw Ronnie and he almost tripped over his own dress robes. Ronnie giggled along with her friends. The other three went to meet their dates and Ronnie looked around but didn’t see Harry or Hermes anywhere, they must have gone down already. She went ahead and carefully crawled through the portrait hole careful not to mess up her dress, and down to the Great Hall. She took great glee in all of the double-takes she got on her way down. Colin Creevy had tripped down four stairs, rolled, and sprung back up with a bright smile and complimented her on her dress. She courageously held in her laughter and complimented him on his correctly tied bright orange bow tie and his fourth-year Ravenclaw date.</p><p>As she reached the Great staircase that led into the entrance hall she spotted Harry and Hermes, standing next to each other laughing. Hermes looked up first and he froze, his lips going up in a smile and his cheeks grew red. Harry followed his gaze and found her eyes. His jaw dropped, but Hermes elbowed him and he snapped his mouth shut and stepped on Hermes' foot. Ronnie rolled her eyes and walked down the stairs to her two best friends.</p><p>“Wow, you look amazing, Ronnie,” Harry complimented.</p><p>“Thank you, you clean up nice as well, you too Hermes,” Ronnie said with a smirk, yep now she was a good five inches taller than Harry instead of her usual four. </p><p>“Is the Lion on your dress moving?” Hermes asked, intrigued.</p><p>“Yep, Lavender, Pavarti, and Fay did it,” Ronnie said.</p><p>“Do you know what spell they used?” Hermes asked Ronnie and Harry groaned in unison, Hermes had to pick apart everything, but Ronnie was curious about that too.</p><p>“Don’t know, we’ll have to ask them later. So who is your date, Hermes?” Ronnie asked bouncing in anticipation.</p><p>“Hermes,” A deep accented voice made Ronnie and Harry jump as a very familiar figure walked out from behind them and took Hermes arm. “You look very handsome this evening,” his deep baritone almost made Ronnie swoon, almost. </p><p>“Hello Viktor,” Hermes smiled, taking his hand for a moment and squeezing. “You as well,”</p><p>“Harry,” he nodded.</p><p>“Viktor,” Harry nodded back.  </p><p>“Veronica, you look very beautiful, as always,” Viktor, said, briefly bowing to her.</p><p>She smiled and very awkwardly tried to curtsey back, almost falling over, but Harry grabbed her arm before she went down.</p><p>“Thank you, Viktor,” she said, before turning her eye onto Hermes. “Can we borrow Hermes for a moment?”</p><p>“Of course.” She smiled, grabbed both her boys and hauled them a good few meters away before whipping around.</p><p>“Bold way to come out of the closet bro,” Harry said.</p><p>“Well-”</p><p>“I can’t believe you didn’t tell us that Viktor Krum was your date. I mean, couldn’t you have told me before I asked him out, would have saved me the embarrassment,” Ronnie groaned.</p><p>Both boys were staring at her, “Ok back up, when did you ask Viktor to the Ball?” Hermes asked.</p><p>“Did you know he was Gay?” Harry asked, pointing at Hermes “Cause I know I can be a bit oblivious sometimes, but I don’t think I’m that oblivious,”</p><p>“I’m Bi actually, I like boys and girls, but-” Hermes interjected before he was interrupted again.</p><p>“I mean no, I didn’t know he was Bi, but it makes sense. You were goo-goo over Lockhart and Cedric.”</p><p>“Goo-goo? I was not-” Hermes said indignantly.</p><p>“Anyway, yeah, I, well, really I kind of just blurted it out one day as we passed in the hall. I was so embarrassed I nearly ran off, but he was pretty cool about it. He said he was “Terribly sorry but he already had a date and that he knew the perfect guy would ask me soon,” Ronnie said, glancing at Harry, “Well I don’t know about perfect, but-” she smiled and Harry pushed her slightly smiling. “Anyway,” She continued, looking directly into Hermes’ eyes, “I’m happy for you, extremely jealous, you get to dance with the Viktor Krum, who wouldn’t be. But I am glad you feel comfortable enough here and with us to go with who you want to go with. If that made any sense. I’ll stop talking now,” she trailed off just as Hermes wrapped his arms around her, picked her up and twirled her around.</p><p>“Hey! Stop it, Put me down!” Ronnie giggled, “That’s Harry’s job.”</p><p>“Not sure the scrawny git can do it,” Hermes laughed.</p><p>“Hey, I am stronger than I look,” Harry said.</p><p>“Was that a comment on my weight wise guy?” Ronnie teased, with a mock hurt expression.</p><p>“NO! No, absolutely not,” Hermes sputtered.</p><p>“Right answer, now go flirt with your date already,” she said pushing him away. Hermes conceded and went back over to Viktor, while Harry was staring at her calculatingly.</p><p>“Oh, go ahead already,” Ronnie said, Harry was a quidditch player and had fought a dragon, he should be able to spin her around once. </p><p>Harry grinned, took a step back, pushed off, wrapped his arms around her middle with bent knees, lifted off, and surprisingly she was off her feet for a moment, spun around exactly once and then she was on her feet again. </p><p>“Well done Harry,” she slow clapped, “Yay, you’re so strong,” she deadpanned.</p><p>“Oh shut it,” he laughed and just then, McGonagall came rushing up to them.</p><p>“Are you ready?” she asked.</p><p>“For what?” Harry asked dumbstruck.</p><p>“The Dance,” McGonagall, “The champions take the first dance as is tradition. Surely someone told you?”</p><p> </p><p>“No,” they both said, Ronnie wasn’t feeling half as excited right about now, but this is why they had the dance lessons after all.  </p><p>“Oh well, now you know,” McGonagall said and ushered them to the entrance hall right behind Viktor and Hermes.  </p><p>“Hey, relax,” Ronnie said grabbing his hand and giving it a squeeze. “Just pretend it’s just us practicing. And I promise if you fall, I’ll pretend to fall too, so we’ll both be embarrassed.”</p><p>“Thanks, Ronnie, hopefully, neither of us will actually fall,” Harry said. </p><p>“That’s the spirit Harry, Positive thinking,” Ronnie said with conviction, willing herself to embody the graceful Lion on her dress.</p><p>As the four champions and their partners took their places in line, Ronnie took Harry’s arm and gave it a reassuring pat, while trying to quell the butterflies trying to make an escape out of her chest. Everyone was behind those doors, she had never performed, let alone danced in front of so many people before. Before her negative thought could rabbit hole McGonagall opened the doors and they filed out in pairs. </p><p>Harry and her, not knowing what they were supposed to be dancing to, mimicked the moves of Fleur and her date, always about one beat behind. Thankfully when it came to the lift, Harry did not drop her, the first time. As the champion dance came to a close, and they did one final spin Harry’s feet got tangled with her and they both crashed into Hermes and Viktor, taking them to the unforgiving ground. A collective gasp went through the crowd followed by a scattered amount of laughter from the crueler students. </p><p>Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it Ronnie landed on top of both taller boys, causing her to flush a violent shade of red, although so was Hermes, so it wasn’t so bad. Viktor took it all with grace and dignity, getting to his feet and helping all three of them up, kissing her hand, nodding to Harry, and curling an arm around Hermes’ waist.  </p><p>“What, Potter not good enough for you Weasley? Need three men to satisfy you?” Draco Malfoy, the creep, jeered from a few feet away, but as she turned ready to launch herself at the asshole, her older brother Percy beat her to it, laying him out with a flick of his wand. </p><p>“Shut the hell up, Malfoy,” He said through gritted teeth before turning to her and the frozen boys, “You ok, Ron?” He asked, touching her shoulder briefly. </p><p>“Yeah, I’m good,” she said, shocked that Percy had done that for her without a moment’s hesitation.</p><p>They resumed dancing as the song changed and Ronnie and Harry switched to a much simpler dance that consisted mostly of swaying and the occasional spin.</p><p>As the night wore on Ronnie switched dance partners, dancing with most of her friends, the champions, their dates, and the uncharacteristically shy Hermes and Lavender. She also fulfilled one of her bucket list moments talking to Viktor Krum about Quittich, she just never imaged it would be while they were dancing!</p><p>Collin Crevey being the dedicated photographer he was spent a majority of the dance running the photo booth in a corner of the Ball. Ronnie, Harry, Hermes, and Viktor, spent a good fifteen minutes in the booth as more and more of their other friends, champions, family, Acquaintances, fans, and perfect strangers wanted in on the photo op.  </p><p>All in all the dance was spectacular, she was so glad she decided to go even before Harry asked her, and that she and her roommates had been able to move on from past mistakes.</p><p>Harry, Hermes, and Veronica spent hours in the common room talking, after changing out of their formal attire, before they knew it it was three am, and everyone had cleared out of the common room and headed to bed.</p><p>Harry insisted on walking her to her room. “Thank you for a wonderful evening, Veronica,” Harry said acting like a perfect gentleman, it was so weird she almost giggled, but managed to channel the energy into her smile. </p><p>“You as well, Harrison.” He wrinkled his nose at the made-up full name she called him every time he called her Veronica. This time she did giggle as she entered her dorm, all of her roommates already changed and asleep. </p><p>As she lay in her bed she couldn’t help but smile and giggle to herself every time she thoughts drifted to the dance, to Harry, Hermes, Viktor, Lavender, Pavarti, Fay, Percy, Ginny, Her other brothers, Even her mum, for handing down this particular dress.</p><p>It was the first time she had ever been thankful for a hand-me-down, but this time it actually brought her closer to her roommates, friends, and family, and others. </p><p>She would have to remember to send her mum a thank you card and send a copy of the photo of just her and her friends.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Sooooooo? What do you think? Feel free to leave a comment and a Kudo!</p><p> </p><p>TTFN</p><p> </p><p>K9KID OUT!</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>